TLC - Caring for your Loved Ones

If you would like your computers to last a bit longer, work a bit better and give you less grief, then these pages are for you.

Some of what follows is common sense, some of it is unbelievably obvious and some of it is just a bit clever!

The extremely useful information provided here is to allow you to restore the youth of, provide well earned healthcare for and extend the lifetime of your loved ones; the office computers of course!  We don’t support this page, it’s offered to you on an ‘as is’ basis so if you try to follow the instructions and get it wrong, tough, you’ll just have to put it down to experience.

Location, location

BAD – your computer is under your desk getting kicked every half our or so.  It’s sucking in mouthfuls of dust, dead skin, mouldy food and metal staples; yes we’ve seen it all.  It might have books and files piled around it blocking its ventilation slots; a fire hazard let alone a computer killer!  It also could have a veritable ‘bird’s nest’ of wires causing a major Health and Safety risk.

GOOD – your computer is of compact size and placed conveniently on your desk or supported on a small stand off the floor.  It will have at least 4 inches (10cm for you youngsters or 50cm for you fishermen out there) of clear air around it; it will inhale some dust but only about 10% of the BAD.  The cables will be neatly organised in a cable management system.

If you have a server, they require professional TLC, so you’re best bet is to call Nomis and ask for some advice; it is free after all!

Speed, speed and more speed

As your confuser gets older, it becomes clogged up with fragmented files, thousands of old internet cache entries and it gets minor disk errors.  These all cause unexplained crashes and slow your machine down; the end result is frustration and stress. 

Try these simple techniques to help you along – they are based on Windows XP Professional SP2 but older systems are similar:

Make sure you have no programs or applications open.

Reduce your Internet Cache size and clear out the junk – open Internet Explorer and choose ‘Tools’ > ‘Internet Options’ > ‘General’, then depending on your version of Internet Explorer either:

For Version 6, under ‘Temporary Internet Files’ click ‘Settings’ and under ‘Amount of disk space to use’, set the value to 50MB and click ‘OK’.  This may now take some time to clear old cache entries.  Finally click ‘Delete Files’ then check ‘Delete all offline content’ before clicking ‘OK’.  Now click ‘OK’ on the main ‘Internet Options’ window to close it.

For Version 7, under ‘Browsing History’ click ‘Settings’ and under Disk space to use’, set the value to 50MB and click ‘OK’.  This may now take some time to clear old cache entries.  Now click ‘OK’ on the main ‘Internet Options’ window to close it.  To clear the old cache entries and other unwanted stuff go to ‘Tools’ > ‘Delete browsing history’.  You can then select what you want to delete in here; only get rid of ‘Temporary Internet Files’ unless there is something else you are confident it is safe to remove.

There are other files you can delete but these are best left to your system administrator or a Nomis consultant.

Check your disk drive is free of errors (this procedure needs performing for each hard disk) – go to ‘My Computer’ then right click on your hard disk e.g. ‘System (C:)’ and then select ‘Properties’ > ‘Tools’, under ‘Error checking’ click ‘Check now’.  Check ‘Automatically fix file system errors’ then click ‘Start’.  The system will tell you it cannot complete without doing a restart.  Click ‘OK’ and then restart your computer.  The system will now fully check your hard disk and correct any errors it finds, if possible.  On completion it will restart again and return to normal.

Defragment your hard disk (this can make a massive improvement) - go to ‘Start’ > ‘All Programs’ > ‘Accessories’ > ‘System Tools’ and select ‘Disk Defragmenter’.  Choose the disk you want to work on and check it by clicking on ‘Analyse’.  The program will tell you if your disk needs defragmenting; follow the instructions the program gives you.  Note: the process may take some time if it has never been done and it needs doing separately for each hard disk drive.

I would perform the disk check and defragmentation every month but do the latter when you go out for lunch!

If your computer is still slow, give us a call on 0845 873 7705 before you spend any money.  Often we find computers that have outgrown their memory.